Plastic cemetery monument



March 7 l. P. TAYLOR, JR

PLASTIC CEMETERY MONUMENT Filed March 25. 1964 INVENTOR [9 9 .1 270 402, r222 BY Z @440 ATTORNEfiS United States Patent 3,310,918 PLASTIC CEMETERY MONUMENT Ira P. Taylor, Jr., 112 E. 4th St, Owensboro, Ky. 42301 Filed Mar. 25, 1964, Ser. No. 354,665 2 Claims. (Cl. 52-103) This invention relates to elegiac or grave monuments and in particular to monuments having novel features of construction.

Heretofore the majority of all elegiac monuments were made from granite, stone or marble but because of their cost and generally unmanageable weight due to their size, the trend has been to use as small a marker as possible notwithstanding that the former were more desirable in most instances.

From an esthetic point of view, the small markers, usually of metal or stone, left much to be desired although from a cost viewpoint they were commercially attractive. Moreover, because their weight was substantially negligible compared to the popular marble, granite or stone marker, handling and installation costs were but a fraction of those formerly experienced. Then too, as will be seen, because of the conventional manner in which the marker was formerly constructed and placed in the soil, ground maintenance around the monument was time consuming and tedious thus reflecting additional costs for such labors.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an elegiac or grave monument which overcomes the disadvantages of markers heretofore made of, say, stone, granite or marble while incorporating the advantages generally associated with only very small markers, i.e. low cost and ease of handling and transportation.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a light weight marker which has the appearance of a heavy stone, granite or marble monument.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an elegiac monument which, when in place, facilitates the maintenance of the surrounding soil surface.

A still further object is to provide a light weight, element-resistant marker which is of simple construction, inexpensive to manufacture, easy to assemble and fix in the ground, and of pleasing and dignified appearance.

Other objects and advantages will be more apparent from the following detailed description in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation of an improved monument according to this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a vertical transverse section of FIG- URE 1; and

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings, represents a moonment formed of a base member 12 and a body member 14. Base member 12 may be a plug of concrete or marble, granite or other stone, with its lower portion 16 embeddable in the soil 18 for stability. The upper portion 20 of the base member is far enough above the surface 22 of the soil 18 so that when the body member 14 is attached thereon, maintenance in and around the grave by way of, for instance, mowing, will be greatly facilitated.

Body member 14 comprises a hollow unitary synthetic resin form, generally of any desired configuration, having an open lower end 24 and a closed upper end 26. In one embodiment the body member 14 has two substantially parallel faces 28, and two substantially parallel end walls 30. Also at least one of the parallel faces 28 is provided with indicia such as the name, date of birth, date of death, ornamental scrolls and figures or the like which can be fixedly attached or molded thereon. Generally, the vertical dimension of the parallel faces and end walls is substantially greater than the transverse dimension 32 of the closed end 26.

In another embodiment the parallel faces 28 and end walls 30 generally have a vertical dimension substantially smaller than the transverse dimension 32 of the closed end 26 which also is conveniently provided with indicia as described above.

In either embodiment at the indicia, the thickness of the body member is increased sufliciently to give support. The body member is also of increased thickness at the periphery of the closed end 26 for further support. The body member 14 is fixedly attached over the periph cry of the base member 12 by any convenient means such as rosette head tamper-proof anchor bolts 34 positioned adjacent the lower open end 24 of the body member 14 to engage the upper portion 20 of the base member 12.

The body member 14, at its lower open end 24 can conveniently be provided, peripherally, with downwardly and outwardly extending member 36 which is preferably spacedly removed from the soil surface 22. It can however, be embedded in the soil to provide additional body member anchoring means.

The body member 14 preferably is molded from a glass fiber reinforced resin and can advantageously be tinted or colored to resemble marble, granite, slate or any other stone. The resin can be any of the type generally employed for bonding and molding articles made from glass fiber and generally is present in amount of about 5 to 50% by weight of the total glass fibers. Preferably thermosetting resins in which ester groups are an integral part of the main chain or cross-linking chains are employed. As an example, there can be used a resin prepared by reacting two mols of ethylene glycol with one mole of phthalic anhydride and one mole of maleic anhydride for two to four hours at a temperature of C. in an inert atmosphere such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide or illuminating gas, and then adding to the resultant product 10% to 40% monomeric styrene. Resins of the last mentioned type are usually referred to as polyester resins and, in general, are made by reacting a polyhydric alcohol with a polybasic acid or acid anhydride. Usually at least a portion of the acid component is maleic anhydride. The rigidity of the resin can be varied by varying the type of polyalkylene glycol or by adding a portion of the dibasic acid as adipic acid or other higher molecular weight dicarboxy acid. Thus, by using ethylene glycol in the manner just described, a relatively rigid or non-flexible resin is produced.

Solutions of these resins in monomeric vinyl compounds such as styrene are liquid and usually have an acid number around 10 to 50. When this liquid resin is catalyzed with a curing catalyst, a solid infusible resin is formed. Heating accelerates the formation of the infusible resin.

Suitable catalysts are the organic peroxides which are soluble in the hydrophobe or resin phase, for example, benzoyl peroxide, a-cetylbenzoyl peroxide, cumene hydroperoxide, para-tertiary butyl perbenzoate, and methylethylketone peroxide.

Examples of other monomeric aryl compounds having an unsaturated side chain which can be employed in place of a part or all of the styrene are: vinyl toluenes, vinyl naphthalenes, vinyl ethyl benzenes, alpha methyl styrene, vinyl chlorobenzenes, vinyl xylenes, divinyl benzene, divinyl toluenes, divinyl naph-thalenes, divinyl xylenes, divinyl ethyl benzenes, divinyl chlorobenzenes, divinylphenyl vinyl ethers and diallyl phthalate.

Other resins can also be used such as epoxy resins. One type of epoxy resin is made by reacting bis-phenol with a caustic alkali to convert it to a bis-phenylate, then condensing the resultant phenylate with epichlorhydrin.

The resultant fusible material is hardened by reaction with a substance containing a reactive hydrogen atom which will react to open the epoxy ring. The hardening agent can also be a cross-linking agent, that is to say, a substance containing at least two reactive hydrogen groups. Examples of such hardening agents are ethylenediamine, diethylene triamine, polyethylene imines, phenylenediamine, rnaleic anhydride and polyamide resins. The bisphenol can be replaced by glycerine or other polyhydroxy material.

The glass fibers can be incorporated into the resin prior to curing and molding to an infusible state or the resin can be applied to a glass fabric and the mixture press cured to the desired monument configuration. For instance, when a glass fabric, in a number of plies to give the thickness desired is employed, the resin impregnated glass fabric laminate is cured by placing the uncured laminate in a press or mold of the monument shape desired which is adjusted to a temperature of 100 F. The temperature of the press or mold can then be raised to 300 F. over the course of 30 minutes and held at 300 F. for 15 more minutes.

Other conventional methods and operations of producing the hollow unitary glass fiber reinforced resin monument can also be employed.

What is claimed is:

1. An elegiac monument comprising a substantially solid base member fixedly secured to a hollow body member having an open lower end and a closed upper end, said solid base member having a lower portion adaptable to be embeddable in soil and an upper portion fixedly engageable about its periphery within said lower open end of said hollow body member, said upper portion terminating adjacent said lower open end of said hollow body member, thereby being spacedly removed from said closed upper end of said body member comprising a unitary glass fiber reinforced synthetic resin form having two substantially parallel faces and two substantially parallel end walls, at least one of said parallel faces adaptable =to receive indicia thereon in a predetermined area thereof, said face being thicker in cross-section at said predetermined area whereat said indicia is placed, said body member being thicker in cross-section about the periphery of said closed upper end and said lower end of said body member provided with a downwardly and outwardly extending skirt member adaptable to be spacedly removed from the surface of said soil.

2. The monument of claim 1 wherein said base member is stone and said body member comprises a molded thermosetting resin reinforced with glass fibers, said resin being present in an amount ranging from 5 to 50% by weight of the glass fibers.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 734,770 7/1903 Stewart 52103 1,397,483 11/1921 Brown 52-103 2,110,788 3/1938 Brauer 52137 2,623,616 12/1952 Oertlin 52-103 2,806,278 9/ 1957 Crump 52-309 FRANK L. ABBOTT, Primary Examiner.

RICHARD w. COOKE, JR., Examiner. 

1. AN ELEGIAC MONUMENT COMPRISING A SUBSTANTIALLY SOLID BASE MEMBER FIXEDLY SECURED TO A HOLLOW BODY MEMBER HAVING AN OPEN LOWER, END AND A CLOSED UPPER END, SAID SOLID BASE MEMBER HAVING A LOWER PORTION ADAPTABLE TO BE EMBEDDABLE IN SOIL AND AN UPPER PORTION FIXEDLY ENGAGEABLE ABOUT ITS PERIPHERY WITHIN SAID LOWER OPEN END OF SAID HOLLOW BODY MEMBER, SAID UPPER PORTION TERMINATING ADJACENT SAID LOWER OPEN END OF SAID HOLLOW BODY MEMBER, THEREBY BEING SPACEDLY REMOVED FROM SAID CLOSED UPPER END OF SAID BODY MEMBER COMPRISING A UNITARY GLASS FIBER REINFORCED SYNTHETIC RESIN FORM HAVING TWO SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL FACES AND TWO SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL END WALLS, AT LEAST ONE OF SAID PARALLEL FACES ADAPTABLE TO RECEIVE INDICIA THEREON IN A PREDETERMINED AREA THEREOF, SAID FACE BEING THICKER IN CROSS-SECTION AT SAID PREDETERMINED AREA WHEREAT SAID INDICIA IS PLACED, SAID BODY MEMBER BEING THICKER IN CROSS-SECTION ABOUT THE PERIPHERY OF SAID CLOSED UPPER END AND SAID LOWER END OF SAID BODY MEMBER PROVIDED WITH A DOWNWARDLY AND OUTWARDLY EXTENDING SKIRT MEMBER ADAPTABLE TO BE SPACEDLY REMOVED FROM THE SURFACE OF SAID SOIL. 